Scandals of Indy

I recently watched the full series again, and while the various
episodes are of varying quality, this was the only one which made me
want to review it. Unfortunately not because of its sterling qualities,
but because - as someone comments during the course of the episode -
its trash.

As the blurb reads, in this episode, Indy woos three ladies. By now,
any viewer of the series will have realized that Indy is a hopeless
womanizer - wooing and discarding (or being discarded) ladies in every
episode. This is not even the first episode where he has more than one
leading lady. Nor is it the first one where he comes off as being a
little callow and selfish.

Unfortunately, it is the first one where he comes off as having almost
no redeeming qualities whatsoever. While the introduction is innocent
enough, the Indy we are presented with here is a selfish, dishonest,
self-absorbed liar - a far cry from the character established in other
episodes. We are supposed to laugh at the antics in the episode - and
that might have worked if it had been a short 45 minute episode - but
stretched out over 90 minutes, it becomes hard to laugh when the
protagonist is so unlikeable.

It's a pity, because the period drama itself is good. Tin Pan Alley and
early Broadway are shown here in all its glory, and the three leading
ladies are excellent (particularly Anne Heche). Unfortunately, it can't
make up for the hopeless central plot that the episode is saddled with.

Young Indy in 1920s New York, in the Broadway Musical scene.

Sean Patrick Flanery is young Indiana Jones, nearing his 21st birthday
and traveling by train to New York City. He is studying Archeology and
has been invited to stay with friends of the family.

On the train he meets Jennifer Stevens as Peggy who is traveling to New
York City to star in a musical, only she doesn't know which one yet.
She has aspirations to make it as a singer.

This is a fictional Indiana Jones story set in a real period of
transition on Broadway. Since 1904 Zigfeld and his Follies dominated
the entertainment industry there, but an upstart, George White, was
just beginning to introduce a new kind of more exciting stage
performance. White enlisted the services of a young George Gershwin to
write all the music, which was a deviation from the practice of
selecting a series of already known songs. So this fictional story has
Indiana Jones in this circle of White, Gershwin, Berlin, and the
entertainment critics. He not only gets involved with them, he becomes
instrumental in George White's first success, the young Indy showing
signs of the daring we get to know in the Harrison Ford movies.

Good movie, on DVD. The biggest task Indy has to manage is getting
involved with three attractive young ladies right away, each thinking
he is hers alone. In the end, when they find out what has been going
on, at Indy's 21st birthday party, his face ends up in the cake.

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The only Indy two parter that's not two stories stuck together.

Steven Spielberg said during production of Temple of Doom that he
always wanted to make a big old fashioned musical and he relished
opening the film with an old fashioned song and dance number. It turns
out Indiana Jones had a job on Broadway himself in his younger days
(described by old Indy as 'the most exciting job of his life', no
less). Having served in the trenches and as a spy during WWI, Indy had
to take all sorts of jobs to support himself during his college
education and seen in these Chronicles, most of his jobs involved show
business. All three of his adventures set in 1920 were broadcast in
much the same way as they were released on VHS and now on DVD, with the
exception of the aforementioned bookends starring George Hall being
deleted from 'The Scandal of 1920'. The reason why this particular
story is a more satisfying viewing experience than the other two (and
indeed all of the Chronicles' two parters) is because 'Scandal'
features just one plot line stretched over two hours, instead of two
completely unrelated ones stuck together.

20 year old Indiana Jones (Sean Patrick Flanery) arrives in NYC to stay
with the Jacksons family, but crashes a party held by Kate the poet
(Anne Heche) when it turns out the Jacksons are out of town. The two of
them hit it off immediately, and Indy forgets all about his date the
next morning with miss Peggy Peabody (Jennifer Stevens), an aspiring
singer he met on the train. Jeffrey Wright from 'Mystery of the Blues'
makes a cameo appearance (though he gets a prominent credit in the DVD
version) and his part really only serves to introduce Indy to the
insanely grinning George Gershwin (Tom Becket). George gets Indy a job
as a gopher at George White's Scandal of 1920 and takes him along to a
social event on Park Aveneu. Here Indy meets yet another love interest,
high society girl Gloria (Alexandra Powers), whom he romances while
dancing to George's music. Even by Young Indy standards (a new love
interest in every other episode) this is pushing it a bit. As usual
Indy also gets introduced to a whole bunch of famous people from that
time and place in rapid succession. First the writers on Tin Pan Alley
have a little impromptu singalong (which is not on the soundtrack, The
Young Indiana Jones Chronicles Volume 3), then Kate takes him to meet
Dorothy Parker and the Vicous Circle. It's a shame they hardly ever had
Indy meeting any original characters during this series, they would
have had some to use in The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (instead of
coming up with new ones like Colin Williams and Harold Oxley).

After being reunited with Peggy during the auditions, Indy has to
juggle his time with three dates while working full time at the
troubled theater company. There is lots of 'A Chorus Line' auditions
and rehearsals, always a good way for filmmakers to incorporate the
rehearsal period into the story. When White's biggest rival Ziegfeld
manages to turn the show's financiers against him, Indy saves the day
by convincing Gloria to ask her daddy to help out. To tell the truth,
the bits of shtick between Mr. White (Christopher John Fields) and his
accountant Schwartz (Robert Trebor) are much more amusing than seeing
Indiana struggle to keep three dates on the same night (Peggy at six,
Kate at eight and Gloria at ten). Luckilly the show moves at a brisk
enough paced and here are enough funny touches to put it a notch above
other Young Indy adventures such as the wildly uneven 'Treasure of the
Peacock's Eye' or the really quite dull 'Mystery of the Blues'. Also,
Indy's friendship with Gershwin works well because for once the real
life person is playing the wise-cracking sidekick instead of rattling
off a bunch of historical facts while Indy stands around and nods.

Even when I first saw this show on two subsequent Saturday evenings, I
had the feeling they should have spend far less time on different
romances and more on the production of the show. Instead, they crammed
the entire show and a whole bunch of new problems into a mere 15
minutes, which is a shame. Still, these are some of the most
entertaining scenes in the entire Young Indy series, even if it strays
wildly from the character we know and love as Indiana Jones. Sure, the
fact that he and the dancers could make up their sexy fan dance on the
spot is a bit hard to swallow (again, more time could have been spent
on this sequence). But the best thing about the show is the way writer
Jonathan Hales managed to weave 'the best song George Gershwin ever
wrote' throughout the entire two parter. By using only bits of it's
often discarded intro as the basis for a running gag, the final
performance by Peggy really pays off in a big way. Unfortunately that
performance is also absent from the original soundtrack mentioned
above. Jay Underwood makes another appearance as Indy's pal Ernie
Hemmingway, though he is never identified as such and what with this
episode being broadcast in most of Europe before his other two
appearances (Northern Italy, June 1918 and The Mystery of the Blues)
his cameo was a bit of a puzzler to me the first time I saw it.
Finally, after the big finale, there is the little mess with the three
girls to resolve on Indy's 21st birthday (July 1st). While the original
episode segued into a gag featured grumpy old George Hall as Professor
Jones, the DVD version closes with a very cheap special effect that
should only be used by amateur editors making home movies: a closing
curtain.